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A battery electric vehicle (EV) contains some of the same equipment as an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle: lights, wipers, air conditioner, disc brakes. But an EV eliminates some equipment entirely — there's no gasoline tank, oil pump or spark plugs — and adds very different components, like an electric motor, battery pack, charge port and inverter. In other cases, EVs use highly modified ICE components, including a gear reducer and radiator cooler. Here's how an electric vehicle works.
Battery packs need thermal cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. They produce much less heat than an ICE.
Power is provided by one or more alternating current (AC) electric motors, which are much more energy efficient than an internal combustion engine. An AC motor has a much wider speed range than a direct current (DC) motor and enables regenerative braking.
A motor gear reducer is used in lieu of a multi-gear transmission. This is lighter, simpler, less expensive and doesn’t require transmission fluid. It allows the car to apply very high motor torque at low speeds.
A rectifier converts AC grid voltage from the electric grid to DC voltage to charge the battery. While the battery pack supplies DC voltage, the motor runs on AC voltage. An inverter changes DC voltage back to AC voltage.
Electricity ranging from 16 to 90 kWh is stored in a lithium-ion battery pack. EVs can travel 3 to 5 miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh), so many vehicles with at least 30 kWh of energy storage can travel 100 miles or more.
The battery pack is charged by grid power through its charging port. Vehicle charging can be done at three different levels. The higher the level, the faster the charging. An EV is smart enough to identify the level of charging available and enables safety features that won’t allow the vehicle to be driven while plugged in.
During braking, the electric motor is operated in reverse. Known as regenerative braking, this actually generates electricity, which is stored in the battery and helps the car get moving again. Traditional disc brakes are used to augment regenerative braking and act as a backup in case power is lost.
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